Sunday, May 25, 2008

Yesterday's visit went very well. I wasn't able to play with Gypsy because she was "in season", so Denise brought out Bond, and we hung out together for a bit. I was more interested in the dog this time--I went up and pet him, took a look at his paws, and tried to ride him like a horse. Mom and Denise stopped me at that point....apparently he's not a horse. Bond kept giving me a toy to throw for him, but all I did was hold it in front of him and play tug-of-war. I got to feed him treats, and I was much more "into" that than I have been in the past. It's still tough for me to navigate the environment and handling a dog. She has a tv stand with a glass cabinet, so I'm always trying to go to that to take a look at how handsome I am. I'm a little distracted by it, so Mom has to keep redirecting me back to interacting with the dogs. Anyway, we are going back on June 11th for another visit to keep meeting the dogs and seeing if Gypsy or Bond will be a good fit. My grandma (Nana) from Texas will be here for a visit, so she'll get to go with us to see what it's all about. That should be fun. Here are a few pictures of my visit yesterday for you to see. Enjoy!

Feeding Bond treats

More treats for Bond

I'm getting ready to pet (pinch) him

Bond checking out my shoes--this is a point where I thought about stepping on him before Denise and Mom stopped me!

Monday, May 19, 2008

So after 10 weeks the total is.....(drum roll).....$3,035!!! We are getting there! Thanks again to everyone who is helping out with this! Come back on Sunday because we go to Brigadoon on Saturday, so I'll have an update for you by then! Oh--on a side note, this week I emptied mom's powdered sugar AND flour canisters (the garage looked like snow!). Fun for me, not for them! But I'm still alive so we'll see what's next!

I thought I'd post pictures of a recent trip to the local kangaroo farm. (You all have a kangaroo farm close by right?) Mom took us here over spring break (the day before my flour/epsom salt fun), and I can't wait to go back. I amazed my mom with how interested I was in the animals. We got to tour the place, feed some wallabies and kangaroos, and even hold a baby joey. My favorite part of the trip was definitely feeding the wallabies--I couldn't get enough of it. I thought a service kangaroo would be a good idea, but mom doesn't think it'll have a good enough tracking nose. I guess I'm going to have to stick with dogs. :) Enjoy the pictures!Love,Aaron

Giving bread pieces to the wallaby.

Yum yum yum. I got to pet him too!

My sister leaned over to talk to me so I naturally assumed she wanted a piece of bread as well! That gave everyone a good laugh!

Isn't the baby so cute???

I'm starting to get a little bored at this point--we were all done feeding wallabies, and had moved on to feeding llamas--not my thing. So mom and I decided to race....

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

In my last post I wrote about a boy who was asking for donations for my dog instead of birthday presents. I thought I'd give you an update. He raised $125 from his birthday bringing our total to $2,940! I can't tell you how much this has meant to me and my family. We are so blessed! Thank you for random acts of kindness. We are headed up to Brigadoon on May 24th, so I'll keep you posted on weekly progress and of course our upcoming visit! Love,Aaron

My Story

Hi. I'm Aaron. I'm 8 years-old and I have autism. I can't talk yet, but I'm close. I do have a little problem (okay a big problem) with running away. I'm stealthy, fast, sneaky and silent.

Because I have such a problem with escaping, I need help from a service dog to help prevent me from running away. A dog that would block me when I was trying to run. This would help me and my parents a lot. See, it's hard to go to the park or beach because they spend the whole time chasing me (I have a brother and sister too). It's hard to go to friend and family get-togethers because they spend the entire time chasing me and can't visit with other people.

Check out my Diary of an Autistic Escape Artist for some of my escape stories. This would be an actual service dog so it could go to the store, school, and vacations with me. It would be my companion, and would help keep me safe.

The only roadblock is that a service dog is expensive. My parents have decided to go with an organization called Brigadoon Youth and Service Dogs. The fee for a service dog from Brigadoon is $5,000. That's where this blog comes into play. Getting a service dog is a long process. It will probably be 2009 before a dog could come home with me permanently.